Sampling of customers show the TTC’s drive to please isn’t hitting home, but service chief says it’s only a matter of time.

New subway trains, new CEO, cleaner washrooms and electronic payment options — none of it has budged the rider satisfaction scores of the TTC’s customers last year, according to new research by the transit system.

It shows that 90 per cent of TTC riders believe the transit system offers average to excellent value for money. But they’re still irked with over-crowding and long waits for streetcars and buses.

The quarterly survey results presented to the TTC board on Wednesday showed that overall satisfaction ratings actually dropped about 5 percentage points last year between April and Dec.

But that’s not a disaster, said the TTC’s acting chief service officer.

First, says Chris Upfold, the crowding is real. “The biggest damage we did was the reduction of our loading standards 18 months ago. Our service is the biggest driver of our overall customer service satisfaction,” he said.

“Although many of our other scores have gone up — and reliability is up 3 to 5 per cent above what it was a year ago — people feel more crowded on buses and streetcars,” said Upfold.

The customer surveys measure perception, he said. “That’s hugely important but it tends to lag reality and is also driven by what the TTC says and what people expect. I think we have raised expectations but have not yet had our customers entirely notice an overall change,” said Upfold.

His experience doing with similar research of riders on the London Underground shows that experience tends to trail reality by about a year to 18 months.

Survey respondents indicated that subways and streetcars were cleaner and the streetcar announcements were easier to hear.

They also gave high ratings to the system’s safety, the quality of subway stop announcements, bus driver appearance and streetcar announcements.

However, wait times for buses and streetcars and the clarity of subway announcements during service disruptions fared lower on the satisfaction scale.

The phone surveys conducted in April, July, September and December last year are designed to gauge the effectiveness of customer service initiatives, TTC acting chief customer officer Bob Hughes told the board.

The first survey sample was only 500 randomly selected residents between 13 and 70 years old. But subsequent samples were about 1,000.

The TTC will continue to hold annual town hall meetings so its riders can make suggestions or vent. But the quarterly town halls have been given over to volunteer transit group TTCRiders to organize, said Upfold.

Although some track repairs that were to close the subway this spring have been delayed due to equipment issues, Upfold also warned that more significant closures are coming as the TTC’s infrastructure ages and major upgrades are needed to the track bed and signalling system.

“They do represent some significant disruption for customers,” he told the transit commission.

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